Raid turned Iowa town 'topsy-turvy'

POSTVILLE, Iowa, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- The mayor of Postville, Iowa, says a "freaky nightmare" began for his small town when immigration agents raided its largest employer.

Postville, with a population of 2,400, lost about one-third of its residents in a few days in May, CNN reported Tuesday. Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided Agriprocessors, the largest U.S. Kosher food plant, and arrested 389 undocumented workers, while another 300 who were not at the plant moved away with their families.

The loss of so many people in one raid -- at the time the largest ever conducted by ICE -- turned Postville "topsy-turvy," Mayor Bob Penrod told CNN.

"It makes a person feel kind of angry," he said. "It's been nothing but a freaky nightmare since May."

Agriprocessors, which faces penalties for employing child labor, is still not up to full production. The lost workers, mostly from Mexico and Guatemala, have been partially replaced with Somali refugees and legal workers from the Pacific island nation of Palau.

Many Postville residents say the departed workers were good neighbors, most of them with families. Now, the town is enduring an economic slump, and crime is up.